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THE FOLKLORESQUE: Reframing Folklore in a Popular Culture World. Edited by Michael Dylan Foster and Jeffrey A. Tolbert. Foster and Tolbert, both folklorists at Indiana State University, discuss the product created when popular culture appropriates or reinvents folkloric themes, characters, and images. “Folkloresque,” as described in the book, is “popular culture’s own (emic) perception and performance of folklore. That is, it refers to creative, often commercial products or texts that give the impression to the consumer that they derive directly from existing folkloric traditions” (p. 5). Chapters include folkloric representations in a variety of popular culture media including video games (such as the ghost-themed Fatal Frame series), Neil Gaiman’s books, films, comic books, anime, and even popular science writing, all of which commonly draw on basic folklore genres. With many paranormal subjects imbued with folklore (urban legends, ghost stories, UFO lore, etc.), this book provides insight into how folklore is used in these commercial and mass-market contexts. Utah State University Press, 2015, 265 pp., $27.95.

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Creators of the Paranormal:
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